Discredited Scientist Plans To Sue UConn For Libel

Seeking $35 Million In Damages

Dipak Das, a former University of Connecticut scientist fired after accusations… (John Woike, Hartford Courant )

January 25, 2013|BY WILLIAM WEIR, bweir@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

Dipak Das, a former University of Connecticut scientist fired after accusations that he fabricated much of his research, wants to file a $35 million defamation lawsuit against UConn and is preparing to file another to get his job back.

A claim seeking permission to sue UConn for libel was filed Jan. 7 with the state office of the claims commissioner. Hartford lawyer William Gagne, who is representing Das, said he expected to file another lawsuit with the state Superior Court that seeks to get Das' job back.

In January 2012, UConn Health Center's research misconduct committee filed a 60,000-page report charging that Das committed 145 instances of fabrications in research. The investigation's findings made international news in the science community.

The suit for which Das is seeking permission to file claims that at the time of the report's completion, UConn officials made numerous libelous statements about him, including that he falsified data and violated the university's code of conduct.

The lawsuit charges that the health center acted with malice and committed libel by "notifying scientific journals and the media that the claimant had committed research misconduct." It also charges that the university did not allow Das "a full and fair hearing" and violated its own bylaws by preventing Das from "introduc[ing] testimony and evidence during the formal hearings contesting the grounds for his termination."

Scott Tips, a California attorney also representing Das, said his client didn't alter the data of any of his studies and that the university's review process violated Das' constitutional rights.

"The University of Connecticut had better be very afraid, as we're going forward with this to get justice for our client and to get his name restored," Tips said.

UConn officials, who have said little about the case after their initial announcement of the charges, would not comment directly on the lawsuit except to repeat the university's main charge: "The University's comprehensive investigation found Dr. Das to be guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data," UConn Health spokesman Chris DeFrancesco said in an email.

Das was a professor in the department of surgery and director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. He was fired in May 2012 , after the investigation. Most of his work focused on the health benefits resveratrol, a chemical in red wine.

Das, 66, earned a $184,396 yearly salary. Although the university announced the committee's findings in January 2012, Das continued to work in his office at the health center for months until the formal review process was complete. During this time, though, he had no staff and all externally funded research in his lab was stopped. The university also declined $890,000 in research grants for which he applied.

Das became the focal point of the investigation when the committee conducted a preliminary review of papers that came out of the Cardiovascular Research Center between 2002 and 2009. They then singled out 26 of what they said were the most questionable. Das was listed as an author on all of them, according to the university.

Topics of the studies ranged from how broccoli protects mammalian hearts to crushed garlic's superiority over processed garlic. Nine of the papers dealt with Das' specialty of resveratrol.

Many of the questions about papers focused on images of "Western blots," an analytical technique used to detect certain proteins in tissue samples. The experiments are rendered by a series of bands, with each band representing a specific experiment. The committee's report states that several of the images were changed — some duplicated, others were spliced together or simply erased. According to the committee, these kinds of modifications can be done with software programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Tips said that Das didn't alter the Western blot images.

The lawsuit also states that in its investigation of Das, UConn officials falsely claimed to have worked closely with the U.S. Office of Research Integrity: "There is no factual evidence that confirms this assertion," the lawsuit states.

The $35 million, according to the lawsuit, is for damages caused by "wrongful termination and libel for back pay, lost future wages, damage to reputation, emotional distress and other injuries resulting therefrom."

Das' lawsuit isn't unprecedented. In 2008, a Purdue University scientist sued for defamation after an investigative committee charged that he twice falsified research into nuclear fusion – that case was settled out of court. And in 2011, a Canadian scientist sued the journal Nature for an article alleging that he faked professional credentials and self-published studies without going through the expected review . In 2011, Andrew Wakefield, whose research connecting autism to vaccines was discredited, sued a reporter and a medical journal for libel. Both of those cases were dismissed last year, but Wakefield has filed an appeal.